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Gleaning at the City Dump #117

9/17/2012

I’ve come to the end of my six month journey of digging through tons of trash at the city dump. Someone asked me how this experience has changed me. I really don’t think that I’ve been “changed” much at all. I’ve never had any deep, visceral reactions to all garbage that I’ve “touched” through the months. In fact, as a young child going out to the small town dump with my dad, I quickly realized that there were amazing “treasures” to be found at every turn. I do recognize that “trash” is, indeed, a part of our throw-away society. I also recognize that I’ve been part of an amazingly creative “Glean Dream Team” program designed not only to keep some of that garbage from heading to our landfills, but also to allow us to seriously begin to think about where we are headed in our need to discard the many artifacts from our daily lives. As Amy Wilson, our glean project coordinator so aptly stated, we’ve been “ambassadors working in the belly of the beast.” You can have one final look at all of us in that “beast’s belly” in this video made by a videographer from San Francisco (Micah Gibson) who had previously been one of the artists in their glean program.

I will continue to occasionally add to this blog, but it will obviously move away from the glean program. I’m in the process of doing a “thorough” cleaning of my garage/studio, and have already started the process of handing off many “trash treasures” to other artists. I’ve decided that I can’t keep everything that I’ve collected, nor do I want to. Pushing all my art aside for the time being, I’ll be off to New York City soon, and headed up the coast of eastern Canada to visit a part of the country that I’ve never seen before. The big international art show this winter in Miami Beach (Miami Basel) is calling to me. I’m eager to go once again to see what other “recycled” artists around the world are doing with their trash.

And now...I’m thinking that it’s time to throw away these leather gloves!

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Gleaning at the City Dump #116

9/16/2012

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My completed body of work, with all materials having been gleaned from the Metro Transfer Station over the last six months:

The work is now at our group show at Disjecta Gallery, Portland, OR, through the end of Sept. 2012.

Metro, Portland's regional governmental body (also a "sponsor" of the Glean Program), has been highlighting each of the five artists in their weekly newsletter. My turn just came up...someone on their staff wrote a fantastic review!

Meet the GLEAN Artists:
Greg Hanson
What do you get when you send five artists dressed in safety gear into a room for six months to sift through a steady stream of trash? The answer will be revealed at GLEAN, an environmental art exhibit at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center of Portland. The goal of the show, slated to run from Sept. 14 through 30, is to prompt people to think about how to create more and waste less.

Greg Hanson is a mixed media assemblage artist who likes to document his work online with in-process photographs; he also makes short videos on a YouTube channel with more than 800 subscribers. Orchestrating relationships between incongruous objects, Hanson says of his art, "it's all about being able to play as an adult." And play he does!

Blogging about his discoveries at the Metro Central transfer station, Hanson's excitement jumps from the page – "pianos everywhere," he exclaims upon finding the third "somewhat twisted remains" of one. Fascinated by its handmade materials, he strips its parts to use leaving only an empty shell.

Viewing his work as "breathing life into others' old memories," Hanson expresses surprise to discover a scrapbook dating back to the early 1900s. "The book is really quite well preserved. I certainly don't understand why this treasure was so easily tossed away," he says. Its hand-written diary entries and photographs document the story of a young bride and her marriage and honeymoon in 1911. "I'm grateful that I was able to retrieve it in those mounds of trash. This was truly a gift," he says.

GLEAN is a public, private, nonprofit partnership between Metro, the regional government that guides the region’s garbage and recycling system; Recology, an employee-owned company that manages resource recovery facilities; and Cracked Pots, an environmental arts group that manages the program. Now in its second year, GLEAN takes its inspiration from Recology San Francisco’s renowned artist in residence program.

The artists, selected by a jury of arts and environmental professionals, include Andrew Auble, Chandra Glaeseman, Greg Hanson, Jennifer LaMastra and Sarah Wolf Newlands. Reflecting the diversity of talent in the Portland region’s creative class, the group consists of instructors at area art schools, graduates of well-known universities and an art therapist. They are award winning professionals whose works have been in solo and group shows – locally and nationally.

Their work ranges from sculpture to mixed media assemblage to wearable art. They use modern and archaic forms, altering the commonplace into non-traditional and sometimes formal compositions.

The process of creating pieces and the transformation going on in the artists and their studios is compelling stuff. The artists have a blog and frequently muse about their adventures and experiences.

Link to Metro News

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Gleaning at the City Dump #115

9/15/2012

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It was one GREAT show last night. I got there early to take some photos before the gallery filled with people:

Good friends, family and guests started to arrive:

By the time I left last night, I had sold several pieces. I'll post an individual photo of each piece in tomorrow's blog...stay tuned!

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Gleaning at the City Dump #114

9/14/2012

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SHOWTIME!

We gather at Disjecta Gallery this evening for the big finale of our Glean residency...five artists and six months of digging for trash at the Metro Transfer Station...materials taken directly from the city dump that would come home with us to our studios to be converted into art!
We had a second day of "hanging art" yesterday. Everything is now ready for the gala opening show. I thought I'd add a few more of those photos:

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Gleaning at the City Dump #113

9/13/2012

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We started the process of hanging our work at the gallery yesterday at noon. We are sharing a space within the gallery with another show (with a large wall dividing us). Our space seemed so large (and empty) when we first met there six months ago to check out the place! Now that all five artists are bringing their completed work together, the size illusion has changed, and we seem to be crowding into a smaller space. A few photos from the hanging event (you should be able to click on each photo to enlarge):

I put all my boxes out on the floor to begin the process of grouping everything together. If you are a "gallery purist" this hanging technique would probably not be your kind of thing. To help in the sharing of our space, I think my own little wall area of assemblages is fairly cohesive, and a little "tight," but it works well for me. It was more difficult than what I thought it would be...nothing like hanging a few pieces of art on my own living rooms walls, etc. I am going back again today to tweak any of my final issues, help the other artists, and take a few more photos.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #112

9/12/2012

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Because of the volume of stuff that I've brought home from the city dump in the last six months to use for potential assemblage pieces, I've now reached the point where I've started to weed out some of those trashy treasures. I need to reclaim my garage-studio to some degree, and get rid of some of this stuff before the cameras from "Extreme Hoarders" show up at my door.
These three boxes are filled with the kinds of things that every assemblage artist dreams about (yeah, right!). I'll be passing these initial offerings on to some other artists.

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg...there's certainly more stuff that needs to leave my garage.

Big day for the five artists today...we meet at Disjecta Gallery to hang our work!

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Gleaning at the City Dump #111

9/11/2012

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This may be the last time that I post photos of the many miscellaneous things that I've been finding at the city dump...I've pretty much come to the end of my treasure finds.

I love this piece...a paint sprayer with hose. This will work well into some new assemblage down the road.

These little springs are quite pricey at the hardware store. I found dozens of them.

One of the LP phonograph albums that I found recently...the idea being you allow the record to play over and over, thus teaching your bird how to talk.

This is one of a few vintage dolls that I've found...it has a nicely aged patina that'll work well in one of my pieces.

This is the wooden box from an old erector set...maybe from 70 to 80 years ago. It's beautifully aged...lots of potential. It was empty when I found it.

This looked like it might be some kind of a child's building toy when I first discovered it. Doing a little research, I see that it is flexible tubing...something that plumbers might use.

A complete wooden bed frame for a child, taken apart, without the mattress. This was in "like new" condition...can't imagine why someone would throw it away.

Pie crusts!

I love this vintage plastic Santa decoration.

I think one of our local pizza shops had just off-loaded some of their trash...old pizza boards to move pizza in and out of the ovens, etc.

A new paper-making kit. I brought it home with me but will probably give it away.

I've got this big "mess" of new golf clubs, most of them missing the club. I can't figure out how I'm going to use these...yet!

Old chocolates...and no, I didn't eat any of these...just enjoyed taking the photo.

Old (and new) electronic equipment...everywhere at the Transfer Station.

Large bags of dehydrated commercial food were dumped at the Transfer Station the day that I was there with Amy, our program administrator. We made a photo "arrangement" of sorts, with all this stuff, including the two halloween pieces. There were several cases of this foil-wrapped food...what a waste!

Someone had apparently lost their dog. They discarded this framed photo (and poem) of their pet, along with the various toys.

A couple inflatable boats:

More food...

More toys...

You can see that it's a never-ending stream of stuff...much of it should never have ended up at the city dump in the first place. Tomorrow is our big day at Disjecta Gallery to hang our work in preparation for the show starting on Friday evening. All five of us will be working together...I'll take some photos of our process and post them here. I will also post photos of our show on Friday evening, as well as all of my completed pieces that will be in the show.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #110

9/10/2012

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A few more of those odd things that I've been finding at the dump:

This roll of bubble wrap will come in handy.

Record albums everywhere!

Celebrating Christmas at the Transfer Station with so many old decorations.

An old rabbit coat, which I set aside for one of the other artists.

Lots of sports equipment:

A big haul of photography "stuff."

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Gleaning at the City Dump #109

9/9/2012

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I found several more pieces of "tossed art" at the dump. The obvious value with these finds is being able to reuse the board or canvas. I stacked several of these pieces in our work area for one of the other artists to take.

Jen and I both took photos of each other, using the large mirror as kind of an optical illusion

At this point, our work area has now descended into something that you might find at some extreme hoarder's home. I doubt that we'll do any more "house cleaning" with the area...we are down to our last full week.

Yes, that's a big bag of chicken (duck or geese) feathers that Jen found. Nobody from our group wants them. I, personally, have never liked working with feathers.

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Gleaning at the City Dump #108

9/8/2012

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Back in July, I had posted photos of a bag of Boy Scout (Cub Scout) memorabilia that I had found while gleaning at the dump (blog #64). Adding to that collection of photos, I found this little "carving kit" the other day...a kit designed for scouts to carve their own kerchief slides. Unfortunately, the "official boy scout carving knife" was missing.

I recently just found a bunch of Girl Scout items from about fifty years ago...a nice look back at some of the history of scouting at that time.

This little "knife and ax" book was my favorite find in this bunch of stuff:

I set up a few of my "trashy art pieces" at a table at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts last night (for the "Time Based Art Festival). The other glean artists will be there tonight and tomorrow night at the same table. We are there to give some "visibility" to our glean program, and to hand out cards advertising our big show this coming Friday.

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